An Open Letter to the Prime Minister from a non BJP voting Keralite

Thank you for bringing a stable government to India. I had expressly voted NOTA because I do not believe the current political setup of India can deliver stability, but you have shown me that I can be wrong.

I come from a state that is not sending any of your party colleagues (or allies) back to the Parliament. Even our neighboring Tamil Nadu is sending only 1 BJP MP.

I can assure you it is NOT because of your campaign slogan “Ab ki baar, Modi sarkaar”.

Most of us in Kerala understand Hindi pretty well.

I am sure some of your close confidantes have explained the uniqueness of our home state. We have a historic tendency to behave differently from the subcontinent. We already have the infamy of voting for Congress after the Indira Gandhi dictatorship. We elected the first Communist state government, that too freely and fairly.

Perhaps, it is your plank on economic development that failed to resonate with the voters in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Both states have sustained economies similar to Gujarat during UPA rule and grow at a pace similar to that of Gujarat. So, both states chose to stick with the ruling party in the state in order to align the centre with the state needs.

One worrying negative that I found in the economy of Gujarat was the remarkably low rural consumption numbers. It was indicative of a state government focusing only on urban development ignoring the rural area. However, this concern was laid to rest for me by Bharat Bala, who had produced a video on rural Gujarat earlier at your behest, at a recent CII conference. He saw rural Gujarat to be content the way it was. It also told me that you had your eye out for your entire populace, not just the urban ones.

While India has given you a mandate to rule freely, it is the Hindi heartland that has given you the resounding hurrah. They have complete faith in your ability to lead them out of BiMaRU. It would benefit our nation at a global level to have this core part of our nation delivering economically.

We often underestimate our ability at the international level, which is why we do very little at the UN. In 1939, MK Gandhi got SC Bose kicked out of Congress. The international repercussions of this event are largely lost on most historians. But suffice to say, the resulting alignment of Indians with the British in Second World War turned the tables on the Axis Powers in Asia and was crucial to an Allied victory in WWII.

The news from Ukraine is very bad. South East Asia is looking over its shoulders for China worried it may follow Russia. China needs more activity to sustain their economic growth. US and Europe are looking on, afraid that they may be forced to intervene. The world will look towards the newly stable India.

On 28 June 1914, the heir apparent of the 1000 year old French noble house of Metz was killed by a Bosnian freedom fighter. The world was at such a heightened state of alert that the assassination led to WWI.

The world is nearing that stage now. We will soon know when the die will be cast.